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June 27, 2013
Open and ShutKedric Webster
A God who is limited in knowledge (especially knowledge of our futures) and limited in power (power to bring about in the future what he will) would not be completely trustworthy. Even when we had completely fulfilled our epistemic obligations (supposing that we could) with regard to some putative revelation of such a God, we could not be sure that what God said in Scripture that he would be, or that he would do, he would in fact be or do, for his power and his knowledge and his will might not be sufficient to enable him to be as he said he ...
June 06, 2013
A Contract of TrustKedric Webster
These days there are contracts all written out So there is nothing to dispute about But if a person won’t stand on his word understood A piece of paper won’t make it good
This poem is featured in a DVD documentary on the Cattlemen of Florida. (If you are interested in a part of Florida history not well known, but is still an on-going way of life, I'd highly recommend it.) The words brought to mind an essay I recently read in the book that I've been citing from time-to-time on this blog, The Trustworthiness of God: Perspectives on the ...
May 29, 2013
Then God saidKedric Webster
I find the contrast between how God is portrayed in the Old Testament and in the New Testament rather striking. Wouldn't you say? [All quotations are from the ESV]
Old Testament
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." – Gen. 1:26
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am ...
May 01, 2013
Unpublished Brave New WorldKedric Webster
"A New Theory of Biology," was the title of the paper which Mustapha Mond had just finished reading. He sat for some time, meditatively frowning, then picked up his pen and wrote across the title page:
"The author's mathematical treatment of the conception of purpose is novel and highly ingenious, but heretical and, so far as the present social order is concerned, dangerous and potentially subversive. Not to be published." He underlined the words.
"The author will be kept under supervision. His transference to the Marine Biological ...
April 22, 2013
Sewn MemorialKedric Webster
From the Pensées, what is called the Memorial, detailing the conversion of Blaise Pascal (1623-62). At his death it was found sewn into his clothing. At all times he carried with him the reminder of his Redeemer.
The year of grace 1654
Monday, 23 November, feast of Saint Clement, Pope and Martyr, and of others in the Martyrology.
Eve of Saint Chrysogonus, Martyr and others.
From about half past ten in the evening until half past midnight.
Fire
'God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob,'1 not of philosophers and ...
April 17, 2013
Hebrews on Inspiration and AuthorityKedric Webster
"It is important to observe how distinctive is the manner of introducing Old Testament citations in Hebrews. In the majority of cases God himself is the speaker through the person of the prophet or psalmist (e.g., 1:5, 6-12; 4:3-5; 5:5-6). In four quotations from three passages the words are attributed to Christ (2:12-13; 10:5-7) suggesting that these verses find their true or ultimate meaning in what he says and does. In three quotations from two passages the Holy Spirit is the speaker (3:7-11;10:15-17), though the same passages are also ...
April 16, 2013
The Triangle of TruthKedric Webster
"There are three media or channels through which the truth of God is brought to man and made his possession, that it may affect his life and so make him religious, or that it may be systematized in his thinking and so issue in a theology. These three media or channels of communication may be enumerated briefly as authority, the intellect, and the heart.
They are not so related to one another that any one of them may be depended upon to the exclusion of the others. In any sound religion and in any true religious thinking, that is theology, ...
April 08, 2013
A Gospel of PovertyKedric Webster
"However much observers might attack the prosperity churches--and they rarely lack ammunition to do so--the promise of material blessings does raise provocative questions about more mainstream Christian theologies. Few mainline churches in Europe or North America would dream of promising health and wealth, which they would regard as a vulgarization of the faith.
At the same time, though, they do not pursue their critique to what would seem to the logical course, of offering their congregations an enticing message of 'sickness and ...
March 25, 2013
The vision of humanityKedric Webster
In a series of short stories entitled Robot Visions, Isaac Asimov writes on his passion of robots and what it means to the future of humanity. One theme that runs throughout, whether these short stories or I, Robot (which is just another series of short stories told to a reporter) is that robots nearly always seem to be more than the sum of their parts. Asimov coined the term positronic for the brain of a robot. It was the closest thing that could resemble the complexity of a human brain and somehow allowed robots to evolve in some manner. He ...
March 22, 2013
Tradition's sourceKedric Webster
The tradition taught by the Apostles
"is not a tradition in addition to or an alternative to Christ. It is the continuance and completion of Christ's prophetic ministry: the postresurrection form of his teaching. Nor is it an open-ended process destined to last as long as the Church itself. On the contrary, apostolic tradition represents 'the faith which was once for all delivered (paradothese) to the saints' (Jude 3). With the Messiah the last word is spoken. After the Son there is silence.
The process of tradition forming is not, then, ...
March 13, 2013
Louis Berkhof on theological reflectionKedric Webster
"Not all periods of history have been equally conducive to the reflection required for the formation of dogmas. It calls for deep spirituality, for religious fervor, for willing subjection to the truth as it is revealed in the Word of God, for a consuming passion to gain an ever-increasing insight into the truth in all its hearings, for diligent exegetical study, and for constructive ability.
Cold Rationalism and sentimental Pietism are equally inimical to it. And certainly such an age as ours, in which philosophical speculations and ...
March 09, 2013
It's hot in hereKedric Webster
“If you don’t want a man unhappy politically, don’t give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war. If the government is inefficient, topheavy, and tax-mad, better it be all those than that people worry over it. Peace, Montag.
Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of ‘facts’ ...
February 27, 2013
Jeremiah Still SpeaksKedric Webster
The centrality of the prophet's speech as God's speech remains even when that speech is cast in the form of a book. Both rhetorical criticism and speech-act theory allow for the extension of the spoken word into writing as communicative event. We saw how the book of Jeremiah contains its own reflection on the process from utterance to text in Jeremiah 36. This means that the book itself favors a model that reckons with the poles of actual speech of the prophet and the book itself as communicative event.
The force of the word is neither ...
February 22, 2013
Therefore, choose lifeKedric Webster
Here is the message of Deuteronomy in a nutshell, culminating in the statement, "For Yahweh is your life, and he will extend your days in the land he swore to give to your forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" (my translation).
The life or death choice of Deuteronomy is, in essense, a choice between trusting Yahweh or rejecting him. To choose life means accepting the Mosaic account of God's actions in the past, recognizing the wisdom of his prescriptions for life in the present, and, above all, putting faith in the solution promised in ...
January 24, 2013
The Order of ServiceKedric Webster
I attend a moderately-sized PCA church called Covenant Presbyterian (CPC). Yes, a very common name, I know. I've been meaning to describe the order of worship for some time because I've come to appreciate how it is laid out and explains what is happening when the congregation gathers to worship the Lord of Heaven and Earth. What follows is how the service is laid out in the church bulletin, with some explanations.
God calls us to worship
The assembled people of God are called into the presence of the Great King with a call to worship, ...
January 16, 2013
Cave SingingKedric Webster
The following except is from Book VII of the Republic by Plato, better known as the Allegory of the Cave. It is followed by the official video of The Cave by the band Mumford and Sons.
[Socrates] And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened: --Behold! human beings living in a underground cave, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the cave; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before ...
January 14, 2013
When your old emails make you laughKedric Webster
This is an unedited e-mail I sent out to friends on September 10, 2007. We had all at one time lived in Orlando, but were now doing different things in different cities. I was updating people about my life and must have had a jolly good time writing the message. I was searching for something in my e-mail archives this morning and came upon it. I should be getting paid as a humor columnist, but I will settle with making friends chuckle as the Roger Nicole of funny people.
Be careful what you wish for.
Things have improved on ...
January 08, 2013
When the slave trade was WilberforcedKedric Webster
I just finished the popular (as opposed to strictly scholarly) biography on William Wilberforce by Eric Metaxas. I would commend the book for its readibility and content, with the occasional witty description of the characters therein. The book is not meant to be very detailed and does not often veer off its subject of Wilberforce to others who played a part in abolishing the slave trade in the British Empire.
In many ways the book reads like a an informal lecture and the prose does tend toward the grandiose. But overall it fits the ...
December 30, 2012
Star Trek and GamblingKedric Webster
One thing I've noticed watching Star Trek: The Next Generation is the number of scenes depicting the characters engaged in some sort of gambling, usually Poker. The scenes are very entertaining, with the game being an outlet showing how the characters interact. Chips are won and lost, which seems a bit odd since humanity is a cash-less society by the 24th century. However, my theory is that, while not playing for actual money, they are playing for credits, which can be used in places where tender is still required (see Ferengi).
The first ...
December 10, 2012
C.S. Lewis on divergent views on valuesKedric Webster
In the short work The Aboltion of Man C.S. Lewis speaks of the Tao, an Eastern concept that he uses in a shorthanded fasion ("for brevity" in his words) that encompass other philosophical traditions. It is "the doctrine of objective value, the belief that certain attitutdes are really true, and others really false, to the kind of thing the universe is and the kind of things we are" (18). With this definition in mind, Lewis turns his attention to values:
"The Tao admits development from within. There is a difference between a real moral ...
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